Thinking of IoT? Get networking right to get IoT right

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What happens when everything from refrigerators to washing machines to elevators and even personal devices like toothbrushes start sending data that can change your life — your refrigerator warning you that the milk is past its expiry date, your elevator telling you maintenance is due and your toothbrush streaming health data to your doctor? None of these scenarios are science-fiction — the Internet of Things revolution (IoT) is here and booming. Gartner says 6.4 billion connected ‘things’ will be in use in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015. And by 2020, more than half of major new business processes and systems will incorporate some element of IoT.

There will be utter chaos if we take current approaches to networks when it comes to IoT. The increased data from billions of IoT devices will have a powerful, disruptive effect on networks and data centres. Networks will be the single most important enabler of IoT. The network plays an essential role in how efficiently other IT resources like processing, memory and storage are connected, utilised and secured. Therefore, as IoT booms and you consider
an IoT strategy, the need to build out foundational aspects of the IoT ecosystem at the connectivity layer cannot be overstated.

In India, the government too sees a huge role for IoT, and seeks to create a $15 billion IoT industry by 2020. The Indian government is also aiming to encourage building of IoT products designed for India’s unique needs.

So how do you get ready?

Getting your networks ready for IoT isn’t a matter of using existing textbook models — throw more fibre, links, access points and the like at the problem. Given the sheer numbers of IoT devices and the ways in which data will move, we need new protocols and management requirements. IoT may indeed need networks built and designed for IoT. One reason is because IoT devices may not be on traditional Ethernet and Wi-Fi networks but on cellular mobile networks. You need integrate that into the enterprise network and interoperability will be a huge challenge.

Secondly, communication by IoT devices will be different from communication on networks today. IoT will be a lot more in real-time and will require real-time responses. In other scenarios, while data may be collected in real-time, only samples may be sent for analysis. Your network will have to be designed to provide different service levels at each point in the network hierarchy. IoT devices will also likely rely on new protocols designed specifically for machine- to-machine communications (M2M). This means new network management tools will be necessary.

And then there is the big issue of security. Billions of new connected devices, new protocols, etc., will bring in big security challenges and opportunities for those who operate on the darker side. Compared to traditional legacy networks, networks without a perimeter are far tougher to manage because it’s no easy task to plan and protect the physical journey of the data, which is what CISOs are most concerned about.

In some of its latest research, Gartner has said that low power, short-range networks will dominate wireless IoT connectivity through 2025, far outnumbering connections using wide-area IoT networks. The researchers added that “traditional cellular networks don’t deliver a proper combination of technical features and operational cost for those IoT applications that need wide-area coverage combined with relatively low bandwidth, good battery life, low hardware and operating cost, and high connection density.”

The way forward

Clearly, IoT will bring to the fore challenges that will be huge and will require radical new approaches, based on deep insights and experience. The business potential is huge, but to get IoT right, organisations will need to rethink networks from design upwards, to protocols, tools and more. And do so keeping in mind security challenges that will be equally critical. This means that organisations will need trusted partners who have the end-to-end capability and experience to do so, whether it is designing, building and managing one layer of the network or the complete stack — including business applications.

You need a partner who can provide a single vision that ensures your network is ready to rapidly respond to changing business needs across multiple devices, applications and locations. This should be able to help you achieve a simplified, agile, cost-effective and security-rich networking infrastructure that can support innovation from IoT and deliver business value.